London Underground

In my quest to complete at least one 100km challenge this year, my weekends have been given over to long and usually dreary walks. In an attempt to stir things up I thought I'd try a home-brew challenge. Inspired by the last issue of Outdoor Fitness magazine which ran an article on DIY challenges, I resurrected [...]

If you've been paying attention, you'll be aware that my Salomon XT Wings challenge - to run the central London tube map - ended in the middle of last week, and since then I've been suspiciously quiet about it. At the time of my last posting, I had two more lines left to complete and [...]

There are 3 lines outstanding on the Salomon challenge - Northern Line (Bank branch), Victoria Line and the Bakerloo Line. With only 4 days to go it should still be quite manageable but the trouble is I am still ill. For the past two weeks I've been hacking up chunks and have had to avoid [...]

I went to London but missed the Queen. I arrived on her doorstep to see a trail of red as the horseguards shot back into their cubby holes. I set off from West Hampstead and had an unremarkable run down to Central London but as soon as I entered Bond Street an ominous rumbling filled [...]

I woke with a stinking cold yesterday but as I was in central London for a meeting I could hardly evade a quick tube running session. The plan was to tick off the yellow Circle Line, starting at Aldgate. It seems to me that every photo I've taken on the tube map challenge has included [...]

An absolute scorcher today, June has finally arrived and what better way to enjoy the sun than spending 2 hrs locked in a tube train and another couple running through the crowds of Central London? I wonder if I've ever mentioned my dislike of the London public transport system. I'm sure the feeling is mutual, [...]

For the last 4 nights I have left work with the declaration, "Right, I'm off to do the Piccadily Line". Tonight all excuses escaped me and I finally had to knuckle down and get it completed. It wasn't as grueling as I expected, Garmin reported a total distance of 11.6 km but there were a [...]

I completed the Hammersmith and City line today. I had initially planned to run it as a single long run but in the end I took 3 attempts at it. I'm trying to take it gently with my back but today it was seizing up every time I stopped to take a photo and then [...]

So, here is the tube map showing progress to date, you may have to zoom out to catch the extremes, depending on the size of your screen: **UPDATE** I've removed the image as it seems to be slowing the blog down and crashing folks computers, you can still view The Full Screen Map over here. [...]

At 5:15 this evening I threw my non-conforming budgets into the air and stepped away from the computer. I had a bus to catch and it's becoming obvious that I won't be able to maintain my usual level of commitment to the day job and still hope to complete this challenge. It took an hour [...]

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!